The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

fraud

When you think of mobsters involved in trafficking stolen goods, perhaps you drugs, cigarettes, and guns come to mind. But the more than 30 people associated with an alleged Russian crime syndicate in New York arrested this week are also accused of dealing in something a bit sweeter — 10,000 pounds of pilfered chocolate. [More]

After lying about having terminal breast cancer and collecting almost $130,000 in donations for her treatment, a woman pleaded no contest to grand theft and has been sentenced to six months in county jail, 30 days of community labor, and five years of felony probation. She also has to repay the fraudulently obtained donations. [More]

A former Bank of America executive, along with her husband and another person, have been accused of bank fraud for their alleged involvement in an embezzlement scheme that involved making millions of dollars of fake donations in the bank’s name. [More]

Victims of a Ponzi scheme that raked in hundreds of millions of dollars allege that online payment system PayPal were aware of the scam operator’s past but turned a blind eye because the company was making so much money from these fraudulent transactions. [More]

We’re all well aware by this point that Wells Fargo employees opened up more than 2 million bogus accounts in customers’ names in order to game the bank’s sales incentive/quota system. Some former bank staffers revealed what they claim are some of the tricks used to create these fake accounts — including rounding up undocumented day laborers at convenience stores and construction sites to get them to sign up for accounts (only to then allegedly give them additional accounts they didn’t ask for). [More]

When the Justice Department recently said that two major tech companies had paid out a total of $100 million to a scammer posing as a hardware manufacturer, it chose to not name the businesses that had been conned. But now, both Google and Facebook are confirming that they were the ones victimized by this phishing scheme. [More]

Going to the dentist is often unpleasant enough without worrying that your doctor will perform a procedure while riding a hoverboard, but prosecutors in Alaska say one dentist not only defrauded the state out of millions, but he apparently did so while moving around on motorized wheels. [More]

Thousands of American Airlines employees unknowingly became the targets of a multi-million dollar insurance fraud scheme carried out by a father-son duo who claimed to provide the airline workers with free hearing aids for simply taking a test. [More]

Most practitioners of the “hot exchange” — the retail grift where a fraudster steals an item then “returns” it to the store for a refund — are happy to chisel away a criminal living, earning $50 here, $100 there. But one Texas man was thinking big when he stole — and then returned — more than $11,000 from Home Depot stores. [More]

If you’ve seen something with a too-good-to-be-true price in the Amazon Marketplace lately, there’s probably a good reason for that. Or, rather, a bad one, as it seems some fraudsters’ new favorite trick is to hijack unsuspecting Amazon sellers’ accounts and fleece shoppers for every penny they can. [More]

Yesterday, in honor of National Consumer Protection Week, we highlighted four scams consumers should be aware of in order to keep their money. One way to avoid some of these telephone-based scams is to just avoid picking up the phone at all when receiving calls from certain area codes. [More]

In honor of National Consumer Protection Week — don’t worry; we forgot to get you a gift too — we wanted to take a few moments to remind everyone of some of the most common scams so that they can do their best to avoid them. [More]

Have you ever wondered about the people who lurk behind scam emails asking for mysterious wire transfers, or who post ads for suspiciously cheap cars that never materialize after the buyer sends a payment? Today, the Department of Justice outed a few of these unscrupulous types, indicting 19 people for allegedly laundering money and perpetrating a variety of international financial scams. [More]

Have you ever wondered how a retailer can leave a Bluetooth skimmer on a payment card terminal in its stores for weeks at a time? It’s harder to detect the devices than you might think, because crooks have their own places to shop for spare parts that snap right on a payment terminal and are hard to spot if you aren’t looking for them. [More]

Four months after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and a number of immigration advocates warned of a potential increase in immigration scams following the November election and the uncertain status of many consumers, the office says it has seen an uptick in fraudsters preying on immigrants uncertain about their status. [More]